Digital Branch of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program

Adele Smith

Adele Deville Smith was born in San Francisco, California in 1901. Her father was French explorer, Erussard Deville - known as “French Pete.” He helped discover the Treadwell Mine in Juneau and ran a general store in Katalla. Adele and her five siblings were brought to Alaska when she was two years old. Her family moved to Cordova in 1916, where she attended high school, worked in a bakery, and met her husband. He was in the military and then worked for the Copper River Northwestern Railroad in Cordova. They had five children. They moved to Kodiak in 1941.

Adele Deville Smith was interviewed in September 1974 by Neville Jacobs in Anchorage, Alaska. In this excerpt of the interview, she talks about Katalla and Cordova, Alaska, the Copper River Railroad, the influence of the Guggenheim family on the railroads in the area, and the early oil and coal exploration in Katalla. In addition to the railroad, Adele talks about her family history, growing up in Katalla, early oil and coal exploration in Katalla, the Native populations and issues related to segregation, her father’s discovery of the Treadwell Mine, traveling by boat to Cordova and Anchorage, old-timers in Cordova, wreck of the ship Portland, and living in Kodiak.